In This Article:

Leadership, inter alia leading HR, is about conceiving possible futures and realising a chosen, desired future (in the case of leading HR, the desired People Future of the organisation). The future forms the crux of leadership, and leading. Leaders, who pro-actively take charge of their organisation’s future through pursuing a chosen, desired future, will be architects of their future, and not victims.

Why the criticality of leadership in future actualisation? Leadership serves as the beacon for direction and guidance; radiates mobilising energy around which people, sometimes widely diverse, rally; helps people to envision and explore previously unseen challenges, and test apparently impossible boundaries; enable and empower people to rise above their circumstances, frequently during the darkest of times; and model the desired ways of acting, to be adopted by others. Leadership thus is a verb and not a noun; it is action and not a state.

Given the criticality of leadership in general, why is leadership within HR particularly vital? Within a knowledge society only 15% of the resources of an organisation are tangible; 85% are intangible (Lev, 2001). Tangible resources refer to, for example, facilities, technology and finance. Intangible resources embrace, for example, an organisation’s reputation, brand, patent rights, capabilities and people (Greco, Cricelli & Grimaldi, 2013). At least 70% of the intangible resources are resident in the organisation’s people in the form of expertise, knowledge and skills. Without any doubt in a knowledge society people have moved centre stage in ensuring the future, sustainable success of organisations (Ulrich, Brockbank, Younger & Ulrich, 2012; 2013; Wright, Boudreau, Pace, Sartain, McKinnon & Antoine, 2011). So the challenge for HR, as the people experts of the organisation, is to become leaders in the fullest sense word from an organisational (or business) perspective (Weiss, 2013).

In facing up to and engaging with the future in the newly emerging world order (Ernst & Young, 2009; Hatum, 2013; Oxford Martin Commission, 2013; Ulrich, Brockbank, Younger & Ulrich, 2012; 2013; Veldsman, 2013) it further can be contended that there is a need for different and better leadership. Hence, also different and better HR leadership. ‘Different’, because the newly emerging world order imposes different demands and sets different challenges. ‘Better’, because of the less forgiving nature of the challenges, issues and problems that have to be faced by leadership.

The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to lead HR as a genuine leader from an organisational perspective in the newly emerging world order. I will explore four interdependent, interacting themes, forming a tapestry: firstly, what are the constituents of a desired People Future (the ‘why’ and ‘whereto’); secondly, what does the process of leading HR entail, the required acts of leadership (the ‘how’); thirdly, what roles must HR leaders play with respect to the leadership acts (the ‘who’); and, fourthly, what qualities must infuse the leadership acts and roles to bring about leadership excellence in leading HR (the ‘what’) in the newly emerging world order.

A Desired People Future The centre piece of leading HR is the realisation of a desired People Future for the organisation. The desired People Future relates to the People Effectiveness of the organisation, and its consequential contribution to the performance and success of the organisation (cf. Paawe, Guest & Wright, 2013). The desired People Future of an organisation, expressed in terms of People Effectiveness, finds its concrete expression in the following equation:

It’s important to note with respect to the equation that the multiplicative relationship between the constituent elements: An increase/decrease in the value of an element will significantly enhance/detract from the overall People Effectiveness of an organisation. A value of zero on one or more element will reduce the overall People Effectiveness of the organisation to nought.

The constituent elements of the above equation can be defined as follows:

People Competencies (‘Can do’): The abilities, both hard (i.e., skills, knowledge, expertise) and soft (i.e. personal attributes, attitudes, values, conduct), required by people to deliver on the mission of the organisation (i.e., what is the business of the business).

People Energy (‘Will do’): The people motivational power needed to realise the organisation’s mission and vision (i.e., the dream of the organisation).

People Legitimacy (‘Should do’):The rightfulness and legitimacy that people have to experience regarding what the organisation stands for, how it conducts its business, and lives its espoused values (i.e., the ideology of the organisation).

People Autonomy (‘Allowed to do’): The accountability, authority and freedom people need to be given to act relative to the organisational aspirations and goals they want to pursue.

People Fulfilment (the ‘Want to do’): The need fulfilment people aspire to, wish for and will receive as a consequence of their conduct, effort and performance relative to the organisational outcomes achieved.

Converting the above People Effectiveness Equation into a fully-fledged Organisational Effectiveness Equation, results in the expanded equation given below. This equation unequivocally demonstrates the intimate and synergic relationship and interdependency between the people and organisational elements of the organisation (Weiss, 2013). In fully taking up a genuine leadership role, HR leaders must take full accountability for the Organisational Effectiveness Equation.

In leading HR the mission critical leadership challenge with respect to the desired People Future as expressed in terms of Organisational/People Effectiveness requires: (i) attaining a high alignment between the five pairs of the people and organisational elements (e.g., People Competencies/ Mission); and (ii) realising the desired organisational effectiveness through the optimising of the multiplicative relationship between all of the constituent pairs.

However, the Organisational Effectiveness aspired to, in order to realise a desired People Future must be referenced at all times against the lasting, worthy legacy the achievement thereof must leave behind. In other words, what difference the legacy must make. Without such a reference point, the desired People Future will becoming self-serving, subservient to parochial organisational interests. In leading HR, the pursuit of this legacy as a consequence of all of the organisation’s intentions, aspirations and actions.

What is the make-up of the lasting, worthy legacy the HR leaders must ensure their organisations will leave behind? One can entitle this legacy as a ‘High Performance/High Authentic/High Responsibility Organisation’. It is made up of three, interdependent dimensions, as can be deduced from the name awarded to the legacy. The three dimensions represent the “triple bottom line” of the HR leader’s aspirational lasting, worthy legacy. This legacy is depicted in the form of a triangle in Figure 24.1 where each dimension serves as an anchor point to the legacy. The outcome specific to a legacy dimension is given in italics in the figure.

Figure 24.1 Leading HR in ensuring a lasting, worthy legacy

In leading HR the mission critical leadership challenge regarding the desired People Future is establishing a direct line of sight between Organisational/People Effectiveness and a lasting, worthy legacy: The triple bottom line of High Performance/High Authentic/High Responsibility Organisation. »